Universe Today

May 7, 2023May 7, 2023 by Matt Williams

China's Mars Rover Finds Recent Evidence of Water Near the Equator

China's Zhurong rover on Mars — An image from China's Zhurong rover shows spacecraft hardware in the foreground and Martian terrain in the background. (Credit: CNSA)

The surface of Mars is a pretty desolate place at first glance. The soil is many times as dry as the driest desert on planet Earth, the temperatures swing from one extreme to the other, and the air is incredibly thin and toxic. And yet, there’s ample evidence that the planet was once much warmer and wetter, with lots of flowing and standing water on its surface. Over time, as Mars’ atmosphere was slowly stripped away, much of this water was lost to space, and what remains is largely concentrated around the poles as glacial ice and permafrost.

For years, space agencies have been sending robotic landers, rovers, orbiters, and aerial vehicles to Mars to learn more about when this transition took and how long it took. According to China’s Tianwen-1 mission, which includes the Zhurong rover, there may have been liquid water on the Martian surface later than previously thought. According to new research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Zhurong rover observed salt-rich dunes in the Utopia Planitia region that showed cracks and crusts, indicating the possible presence of water as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago.

May 7, 2023May 7, 2023 by Laurence Tognetti

A Lack of Alien Signals Actually Tells Us a Lot

In a recent study published in The Astronomical Journal, a researcher from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) discusses the potential reasons why we haven’t received technoemission, also called technosignatures, from an extraterrestrial intelligence during the 60 years that SETI has been searching, along with recommending additional methods as to how we can continue to search for such emissions.

May 6, 2023May 6, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Watch a SpaceX Fairing's Fiery Re-Entry Through the Atmosphere

An artist's illustration of the Falcon Heavy. Will it send Mars One colonists to Mars?Image: SpaceX — An artist's illustration of the Falcon Heavy. Credit: SpaceX

During the recent ViaSat-3 launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket, SpaceX released the protective spacecraft fairing at the highest altitude ever attempted. Therefore, the fairing reached incredible speeds during its fiery re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere. Fortunately, there was a camera on board so we could watch. At one point, the one half of the fairing was traveling 15 times faster than the speed of sound, releasing a trail of plasma in its wake as it returned to Earth.

May 6, 2023May 6, 2023 by Brian Koberlein

Thirsty on the Moon? Just Throw Some Regolith in the Microwave

A crucible that could be used to extract water from Lunar regolith. Credit: Cole, et al

No matter where we go in the universe, we’re going to need water. Thus far, human missions to Earth orbit and the Moon have taken water with them. But while that works for short missions, it isn’t practical in the long term. Water is heavy, and it would take far too much fuel to bring sufficient water to sustain long-term bases on the Moon or Mars. So we’ll have to use the water we can extract locally.

May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Newborn Star Surrounded By Planet-Forming Disks at Different Angles

This artist's concept is based on Hubble Space Telescope images of gas-and-dust disks around the newborn star TW Hydrae. HST images show shadows sweeping across the disks encircling the system. These shadows are probably from slightly inclined inner disks that block starlight from reaching the outer disk. The disks are slightly inclined to each other due to the gravitational pull of unseen planets warping the disk structure. Credits ARTWORK: NASA, AURA/STScI for ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

One of the great questions about our solar system is: what was it like as it formed? We know that a protosolar nebula birthed the Sun and planets. And, we know planets in our solar system have slightly different orbital inclinations, probably due to some interesting dynamics in the birth crèche. Why is that? The answer may be in a slightly weird-looking protoplanetary disk circling the newborn star TW Hydrae.

May 4, 2023May 4, 2023 by Evan Gough

Solar Flares Could Have Helped Life Get Started on Earth

Solar flares pose a major hazard to electronics and infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit, but they may have played a role in kick-starting life on Earth. Credit: NASA/SDO/J. Major

Stars emit powerful flares that can be deadly for any burgeoning life on nearby planets. Images from spacecraft that monitor the Sun show these flares in glorious, horrifying detail. But the flares from the Sun are mere nuisances compared to some stars. Some stars produce catastrophic superflares, which can be tens of thousands of times more energetic than the Sun’s. That much energy can sterilize a planet’s surface.

But new research shows that a certain amount of flaring activity on the Sun could’ve been beneficial. It could’ve kick-started life on Earth.

May 4, 2023June 6, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

It’s Surprisingly Easy to Hurl Rocks From Mars Into Space

A Martian meteorite, designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 and nicknamed "Black Beauty," weighing approximately 11 ounces. Credit: NASA,

Of the thousands of meteorites found on Earth, about 188 have been confirmed to be from Mars. How did they get here? Over the tumultuous history of our Solar System, asteroids have smashed into Mars with such force, the debris was blasted off the planet and then drifted through space, eventually entering Earth’s atmosphere, and surviving the journey to the ground.

Astronomers once thought it was a complex process, with only the most powerful impacts capable of throwing rocks from Mars into space. But new research shows that it takes much less pressure than previously believed, which means there could be more chunks of Mars floating in space and on their way to Earth.

May 4, 2023May 3, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Dark Energy Was Always Present, Everywhere and at Every Time

X-ray (top row) and optical pseudo-color (bottom row) images of three low mass clusters identified in the eFEDS survey data. The highest redshift cluster come from a time when the Universe was approximately 10 billion years younger than today. The cluster galaxies in that case are clearly much redder than the galaxies in the other two clusters. These galaxy clusters were used to determine th extent of dark matter across space and time. Courtesy: eRosita — X-ray (top row) and optical pseudo-color (bottom row) images images of three low mass clusters identified in the eFEDS survey data. The highest redshift cluster come from a time when the Universe was approximately 10 billion years younger than today. The cluster galaxies in that case are clearly much redder than the galaxies in the other two clusters. These galaxy clusters were used to determine th extent of dark matter across space and time. Courtesy: eRosita

The Force is with us, according to cosmologists working to understand a mysterious “something” that’s making the universe expand. Its name? Dark energy. And, it turns out that it’s been present everywhere throughout cosmic history.

May 3, 2023May 3, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Astronomers are Starting to Find the Wreckage Left Over from the First Stars in the Universe

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), researchers have found for the first time the fingerprints left by the explosion of the first stars in the Universe. They detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what we expect from the first stellar explosions. These findings bring us one step closer to understanding the nature of the first stars that formed after the Big Bang. — This artist’s impression shows a distant gas cloud that contains different chemical elements, illustrated here with schematic representations of various atoms. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what we expect from the explosions of the first stars that appeared in the Universe. These early stars can be studied indirectly by analysing the chemical elements they dispersed into the surrounding environment after they died in supernova explosions. The three distant gas clouds detected in this study are rich in carbon, oxygen, and magnesium, but poor in iron. This is exactly the signature expected from the explosions of the first stars.

The first stars were odd ducks. Nobody’s observed them yet (although astronomers are hopeful JWST might spot them someday) but their ghosts remain. Born more than 13.5 billion years ago, they were very different from most of those we know today. These were massive monsters made mostly of hydrogen and helium. And, when they exploded as supernovae, their “starstuff” got scattered to space. Astronomers have now found the chemical remains of those stars in three distant gas clouds observed by European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.

May 3, 2023May 3, 2023 by Evan Gough

Is This Nearby Asteroid a Chunk of the Moon?

Illustration of Asteroid (Artist’s Impression). Credit: N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), ESO/M. Kornmesser and S. Brunier, N. Risinger

The Moon dominates our view of the night sky. But it’s not the only thing orbiting Earth. A small number of what scientists call quasi-satellites also orbit Earth.

One of them is called Kamo’oalewa, and it’s a near-Earth asteroid. It’s similar to the Moon in some respects. Could it be a chunk of the Moon?